Music to my ears....

[eighthobstruction]

....a brief history of my celebration at others mishaps (yes that word I cannot spell)

....bye bye Vice Chancellor of Bath Uni....

[subcontrabass]

....a brief history of my celebration at others mishaps (yes that word I cannot spell)

....bye bye Vice Chancellor of Bath Uni....

Not going until next summer and then just taking a year's sabbatical (on full pay) before retiring.

This does not deal with the underlying problem. See https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...s-salaries-pay

[eighthobstruction]

very much indeed....oooooo bile, vitriol....[but not envy]....it's what i call [in my head] - doing the Jenny 'big pension pot' Abramski

[teamsaint]

you have to pay for the best talent...blah blah blah....indispensable blah blah blah.... market rates blah blah blah...


Pseudo business, using business jargon, and slash and burn business models. All dreadfully familiar.

[french frank]

Not going to object to the spotlight falling mercilessly on people who ought to see that their own pay packets are way out of proportion to those lower down the employment ladder. But focusing on universities is a bit pointless: each university has one vice-chancellor: look at the BBC and see how many earn in excess of £300,000 (and the DG earns about the same as Dame G Breakwell).

In most outfits it's the 'business managers' who take the cream.

[Lat-Literal]

She says that the university has tripled in size since 2001. It is also one of the country's best performers. But there is a desperate need now for greater regulation and transparency in terms of the way all of these so-called public universities are run. Joe Public hasn't got a clue where all their money is coming from and what commercial interests might be involved.

Somehow along with her allegedly demanding role, she manages to have fitted in being Director of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), Director of Universities UK (UUK), Chair of the UUK Funding and Management Policy Committee and Council Member of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Additionally, she appears to be a non executive director of NHS Improvement, an interesting position given the accent on Bath's pharmaceutical wing and all of its drawing of interest from US companies involved in robotics and more.

Then there is the university's newish base in Central London. Pricy one would imagine and not necessarily in line with the way many would view regional policy at its best. It's not alone here. I know of part time shop people locally who are studying at the University of Sunderland but have never set foot in the North East and they appear not to even know where Sunderland is located. That's because they always travel to its London building. So it's Bath as in Bath and London, yes? Yes - and also as it happens as in Swindon. Anywhere else?

In Swindon and indeed in Bath itself Dame Breakwell has helped universities to be the leaders in attempts, most often successful, at building across the Green Belt. See also York - and there are others. So this, generally, is not the traditional free rein for academia. It is the sort of looseness which enables big business with more academic looking figures to develop national policy of its own accord without being accountable to voters. Perhaps in some ways it is small wonder that the salary is considerably in excess of that of the PM, not that it makes any sense for it to go to just one person. For when the democratic process is syphoned off, most of the workload is contracted out. For Ministers, read VCs, Directors, Chairs etc.

[subcontrabass]

Not going to object to the spotlight falling mercilessly on people who ought to see that their own pay packets are way out of proportion to those lower down the employment ladder. But focusing on universities is a bit pointless: each university has one vice-chancellor: look at the BBC and see how many earn in excess of £300,000 (and the DG earns about the same as Dame G Breakwell).

In most outfits it's the 'business managers' who take the cream.

During the 27 years in which I taught in universities there was a very noticeable increase in the number of "senior managers", mostly with no academic credentials (beyond bachelor's degree or equivalent professional qualification). These all ranked above the most senior academics, who actually delivered and managed the teaching and research on which the income and reputation of the university depended.

[french frank]

During the 27 years in which I taught in universities there was a very noticeable increase in the number of "senior managers", mostly with no academic credentials (beyond bachelor's degree or equivalent professional qualification). These all ranked above the most senior academics, who actually delivered and managed the teaching and research on which the income and reputation of the university depended.

And universities, like schools, are in competition with each other. They need 'professionals' to manage that. There was the story a few years back about a manager(?) circulating academics to say they should give more firsts, as potential students checked these details when deciding which universities to apply for.

[ahinton]

And universities, like schools, are in competition with each other. They need 'professionals' to manage that. There was the story a few years back about a manager(?) circulating academics to say they should give more firsts, as potential students checked these details when deciding which universities to apply for.

Yes, but isn't tht symptomatic of almost everything else, in the sense that everyone and every institution is in "competition" with every other? Taxation is a competitive industry; so are social charges levied by governments. So is Strictly Come Bake-off, the Leeds and Tchaikovsky competitions and the like and unlike. "The marketplace of the mind", as someone (whose name I can't now recall" described it.